I had heard comments saying that this film was child pornography or something. That idea is totally wrong! The nude scenes where Violet (Brooke Shields) appears nude are only a few and pure, there is NO lascivious exhibition or anything similar. So please stop saying this is child pornography because it is not.<br /><br />---MAJOR SPOILERS---<br /><br />Anyway, I must say that most of the content, especially the first half, is disturbing because you can see how cruel was the social environment where the girl was living in. For example, they make her to prepare drugs for the old lady of the house, she is beaten, every woman keeps saying she will be such a beautiful revenue, she is allowed to see nudity and sexual intercourse anytime, and in general they do not handle her as a child, but as a servant and as a potential little whore all the time. The limit of sickness is when the girl's virginity is auctioned. Even her own mom agrees. At this moment you think "Does someone there has a heart?" It seems the only person that really loves her is the black pianist and you can see the indignation in his eyes during the auction, but he feels helpless cause he knows he cannot do anything because of his race.<br /><br />But the worst is that most of this abuse is being done with the little girl's consent and her WISH. You just cannot wait to break into the screen, take her and shout "Wake up, baby, wake up!" Somehow she realizes that no-one cares about her but on the other hand she wants attention and wants to be handled as an adult, just like all preteens want. Sadly the only way of life she knows to be an adult woman is to be a prostitute. But even though she wants to be an adult it is just like a game for her, because actually she behaves like a kid because she IS a kid. And at the finale is obvious how her innocence is still there when her mom comes back with a new dad for her and wants to take her to a better life, and she says to her husband/photographer "Can't we all go?"... The finale makes you think "I hope Violet will have a really better life now". Since her new dad seems to be a respectable person you would think she will.<br /><br />I enjoyed the film. It is cruel, raw, you have to be prepared to watch this. The bad points is that this film has a slow pace, it is predictable and the actors are not too good, it seems they are reading lines. But I give it 8 out of 10 because the plot is well done also the time scenery/clothing/atmosphere, and specially because it is a controversial theme handled deeply.<br /><br />If someone asks me "Was Brooke Shields exploited in this movie?" I have to say of course, she was, not only for the nudes but for the situations she has to go through the film. Even though the nudes in this movie are tame, they are nudes after all and I don't think a girl that age feels comfortable being nude in a cinema production set with 20-30 people around looking at her, not to mention the things she has to say or to do with men in the movie. But what can you do? She was exploited, just like other kids in cinema like Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore, Shirley Temple and the most recent Dakota Fanning.